Issue Brief on “Syria: Emerging US-Russian Consensus”

Launch of a major military offensive by the Syrian Arab Army in June 2018 to regain control of Dara’a province has broken a year-long truce in the strategic southern part of Syria. Dara’a city was the birthplace of the sedition that began in March 2011 before morphing into a foreign-backed militancy that continues to this day.

On July 12, 2018, there were reports that a Russian military delegation had entered Dara’a’s terrorist-controlled area and begun negotiations with commanders from the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) on implementing the terms of the surrender deal, and over the region’s handover to the Syrian government.[1]